Ajax
AJAX stands for asynchronous JavaScript and XML. AJAX as a web developing technique contains JavaScript and XML programming elements for developing highly responsive application over the web. Web applications contain both client side and server side.
In general in using web applications, requests are sent to the web server from the web browser through internet. Due to the volume of the request and response, this process is a slow and time consuming part of the overall experience. In web applications that benefit from AJAX, data is retrieved from the server without making any significant changes on the page. In fact, the pages in web browser request only small parts of information that they need instead of the whole page.
Ajax has different advantages:
- Since different pages on a website have similar parts there is no need for them to be reloaded every time. AJAX can communicate with the server in the background without changing the current state of the page. This will reduce the load time and bandwidth usage.
- Every time a page gets loaded, only small parts or fragments of it will actually be downloaded from the server. This is why the web application will load faster.
- Since scripts and style sheets are loaded once the connection to the server is reduced.
But Ajax also has some disadvantages:
- By using AJAX the website history will not be registered that is why using the back button on the web browser will only guide the user to the last full page visited.
- Bookmarking a specific state of page is harder since the pages are dynamic.
- Using AJAX can open security holes and ways for hackers to get through, which are not obvious for the original developers.
The performance gains of using AJAX are usually so apparent that every user will be able to tell the difference in the usage experience. Given the vast adoption of web-enabled tools and portals, it is not surprising to see how fast AJAX is gaining popularity.
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